Birthday #4: Ariel Party!

We originally planned on having a pool party...

but the weather was a little questionable, so we went with Plan B back at the house.

Dressed and ready for her guests to arrive! 

"the guest of honor"

We don't need no stinkin' pool!

Hill, check.  Big plastic tarp, check.  Running water, check.  DISHSOAP... check!

Impromptu Hillbilly Slide... LET'S DO THIS!

Seriously though, we were a little worried that the party would be a dud

without the pool (aka: Ariel's Underwater Grotto) as advertised...

but the hillbilly slide was pretty awesome!

Even the little boys had fun with the water table.

Ariel Cake

Thanks to Aunt Cara, Johnny boy got a little (actually it was huge) extra treat too!

Our girl, all giddy and ready to open presents!

These pictures are awesome... check out her expressions!

Just a LITTLE excited about her My Little Pony stuff.

Thank you everyone for making this such a special birthday for Maeryn.

She is one lucky girl!!!

And this guy just waits patiently for the day AFTER the party...

because those lovely decorative balloons become the BEST toys ever!!!

The week of MAERYN.

Birthday Week 2013:

Turning 4 was a pretty big deal in our house this year.

Maer's biggest milestone with this birthday was that she can now swim

completely independently, she wears goggles and puts her face underwater and everything. 

The big goal for the summer was to be able to swim by her 4th birthday,

and we can definitely say she reached it!

To celebrate, we did a little of everything...

Monsters University

Magic House 

Lunch at the AG Bistro with Mary and Meghan.

Shrek at The Muny

And this doesn't even include the Ariel Birthday Party!

We'll give that it's own post...

Happy birthday Maeryn Kate, we love you and are so proud of the smart, funny,

energetic, determined, sometimes sassy and a little bit crazy, but totally awesome girl you are! 



Thank goodness for neighbors!

One of our neighbors' kids is apparently just as obsessed

with Disney princesses as our girl Maeryn is, and so much so that Addison even had

a princess themed Birthday party and even got Cinderella herself to attend! 

And the title of this post is "thank goodness for neighbors" because

since they were brave enough to pull this off, it meant I didn't have to.  SCORE!

It really was the cutest thing ever though...

She's here, she's here! 

Look at them all checking her out.  These girls are just too cute! 

Cinderella came in and gave each girl a hug and asked them all their names

and who their favorite princesses were. 

She was very authentic and the girls were just in awe! 

Then she read them a book, Cinderella, of course! 

And taught them all how to "curtsey", 

and dance like a real princess!

What a great idea - and again, soooo glad our neighbors thought of it first! ;-)